Select Local Merchants

After playing as a defensive back for Texas A&M, Angel Rivera III joined AFL, AFL2, and IFL teams such as the San Antonio Stampede and the Dallas Knights before injuries eventually forced him into retirement. But then another chapter of his life began, and his love of the game led him to begin training local athletes. In 2010, he created All Out Sports Training to help high-school, college, and professional athletes take their game to the next level. Angel’s team of sports nuts empowers football, baseball, soccer, and basketball players by whipping them into shape and developing their sports-specific skills. The fitness team uses programs such as the Speed, Agility, and Quickness training, which gets participants racing through speed ladders, doing box jumps, and donning speed resistance belts.
The trainers also help non-athletes reach their goals through programs such as bridal boot camp, which is designed to boost self-esteem, tone bodies, and give brides more energy for the traditional 50-yard dash down the aisle. During personal and couples training, the trainers might get their clients hefting dumbbells, jumping rope, or straining against resistance bands, all depending on their individual goals.

At Rebounderz, parents need not cringe as they watch their kids literally bounce off the walls. Safety is of the utmost importance to the staff, and it starts with the trampolines. Over 24,000 feet of these bounce boosters line the floors and jut outward at an angle on the walls. Their patented design boasts high-quality components that make them much safer than leaping off the garage roof with an umbrella as a parachute. As kids engage in friendly battle on the dodgeball trampoline or practice their approach at the slam dunk station, safety-trained referees keep a watchful eye on them at all times. Kids and grown-ups can take a break from simulating molecular fusion at the arcade, earning tickets to trade in for prizes.

At My Salsa Dance Studio, professional dancer Kane pairs students off and gives hands-on instruction in some of Latin dance's hottest genres. Under Kane's wing, dancers, like sequined tortilla chips, pick up plenty of salsa, but they can also enroll in bachata and Argentine tango. There are also fitness classes, such as salsa fitness and Zumba, which use the art form of dance as a means of burning calories. There are two ways to work with Kane: attend one of his organized group classes, or enlist the help of his mobile service and have him teach at an off-site party or event.

Artie's Playhouse at Artisan Center Theater executes a packed season of shows conjured by a company of child actors, directors, designers, and technicians. The 2012 season commences with Rumple-Steal-Skin, in which the miller's daughter guesses the
goblin's name by gradually reading through the playbill before treating audiences to Academy Award–winning tunes in Disney's Aladdin Jr.. Theatergoers accompany Dora the Explorer on a seafaring voyage in Dora the Explorer, Live! Dora's Pirate Adventure, experience the bond of friendship between pig and spider in Charlotte's Web, or watch true love transcend appearance in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Jr.. Other shows include Rapunzel, Disney's Winnie the Pooh Kids, The Big Bad Musical, A Snow White Christmas. Artie's Playhouse weaves its spells from the center of an intimate 150-seat theater-in-the-round.

Accomplished artists themselves, both Tracy Malmstrom and Gail Carson?"Ms. Tracy and Ms. Gail" to their young students?have taught art in elementary schools. After a deluge of requests for private lessons, Tracy founded ArtCastle in 2006 and Gail signed on in 2011. Together, they nourish the artistic spirits of children 6 and older through drawing, painting, printmaking, and a plethora of other mediums.
As the young artists hone visual skills while silk painting or practicing batik-watercolor techniques, Tracy and Gail also strive to bolster their problem-solving abilities, listening skills, and confidence. In addition to after-school and home-school art sessions, the duo offers Friday kids' night out parties in which kids belt out karaoke, scarf down pizza and desserts, and amaze their parents with a finished work of art at the end of the night. Summer camps and classes keep kids active on break and Saturday workshops teach youngsters of all ages a new artistic skill each month, such as how to construct a new best friend out of papier-m?ch?.

Jana Edele, the founder and artistic director of the Velvet Kittens of Le Cabaret Burlesque, created a new way to get in shape with Burlesque Body Sculpt. During one-hour classes, instructors lead students through flirty burlesque routines that incorporate hip rolls and shoulder shimmies. In addition to boosting confidence, the sessions work all major muscle groups for increased strength, stamina, and flexibility.